An important aspect of marketing is the use of coupons that can be redeemed while grocery shopping, for example. The coupons usually appear in newspapers and magazines and provide a small reduction in price when the goods and coupons are presented to the grocery clerk. This is offensive to many people who do not have the time available for clipping coupons from publications and saving them until the next shopping trip. Accordingly, the present invention provides a means by which all of the customers can obtain their coupons at the same location in the store that displays the desired goods.
It may appear to some people that this same goal could be achieved by merely nailing a handful of coupons to the store shelf so that the customers could retrieve the coupons one at a time from the stack of coupons. However, when this has been tried in the past, the coupons invariably become torn or multilated and litter the floor, or a customer will take unfair advantage and retrieve more than one coupon from the stack.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide a tampered proof enclosure within which coupons are stacked and transferred from the stack to a location outside of the enclosure where the coupon is presented to the customer one at a time. Moreover, it would be desirable that a considerable time delay occur between the sequentially delivered coupons so as to discourage the customer from taking more than one coupon. Furthermore, it would be desirable that the coupon dispenser attract the attention of the customer so that he will be induced to purchase the goods associated with the coupon.
Apparatus that overcomes the above drawbacks and provides some of the desirable aspects enumerated above is the subject of the present invention.